Welcome to the future! Where we can land a spaceship on a comet… but still think its ok to wear a horribly sexist shirt on TV #shirtgate #cometlanding

The ESA has truly made science history!!! Twitter and everyone else is celebrating the successful landing of Philae on Comet #67P from the Rosetta Spacecraft! !

Unfortunately, the ESA also made science history today for having poor and sexist garment choices be a part of their press interaction. One of the main project scientists for ESA’s Rosetta project, Matt Taylor, decided to wear the shirt shown in the tweets below on TV coverage of the historic landing. UGH! For more perspective on this, check out this great post by Small Pond Science!

His shirt says to girls watching from their elementary classrooms: Science is not for you. You shouldn’t be an engineer sending robots into space.

His shirt says to women in STEM: I have no respect for you as a professional. When I look at you, I see a sex object, and not a colleague.

UPDATE 2: CauseScience has left up as many comments as possible. However, a number of comments had to be taken down due to either language or content that was not appropriate for this blog audience. Comments were not taken down for criticizing or disagreeing with this post. If commenters cannot comment using appropriate language, their comment has no place here.

This is the scientific head of operations for the ESA’s rosetta project. Cool shirt for an engineer 🙂 http://t.co/AfWEox9sLo

yeah mike this is exactly like that. totally spot on comparison bud. a guy wearing a shirt his female friend made him for his birthday is exactly like wearing a shirt that condones child pornography, which is illegal. great point mike. It really is so sexist that a heavily tattooed scientist wore a shirt with comic book style sexualized females on it. and any sexualized image of women ever is totally sexist. great point buddy

Woah, anonymous troll?!?!
If by driving people away, you mean that it is our most viewed article by 100x, then sure. And by your logic, I guess corporate and government dress codes also hold back people who might be offended.
Yaaaaa’ok

I think people are here because of the controversy. Not because they agree with the article. Even this article agrees with the idea that the controversy is doing a disservice to the women in the industry.

As the article says we should be celebrating the women who participated in one of the greatest achievements of science this decade. Not getting in a tuss about a shirt that a female designed and made and gave as a gift. One is empowering, the other’s alienating.

Maybe a lab coat and specs would’ve have done the job! It’s just a shirt, I thought educated people were tolerant. If the characters on the shirt had been male superheroes in tights would we be talking about it?

Haha! Your comment is very uninformed. This is a for fun personal blog by two people who really like science and are concerned about the current status of science in society. I guess what you consider spammy, clickbait, we consider an important discussion about our field.

all this did was to highlight just how petty feminism has become, conveniently failing to mention that the shirt was made by a woman, but i guess that doesnt count when you have an agenda of utter hypocrysy does it, and i seem to recall that women have been whining about “you cant tell us what to wear, thats no ones business but our own” remeber that , and yet here feminists are dictating what a man can wear, double standards? oh very much, and you wonder why there arent more women in science, answer is simple, because of women such as the whiny little feminazi’s who dont have a clue about anything except whining about totally unimportant things, jealous little control freaks who shout as loud as they can about sexism and then go out and show as much of their body as they can legally get away with, vile little creatures who go on slutwalks, so stuipid that they think taking back an already toxic word will make it any less toxic, utter stupidity and then you wonder why women arent taken seriously, complaining about how you are so equal to men but you can only be equal if the goal posts are moved to accomodate you, yeah thats really equal, those who think this is some kind of victory for women should be disgusted with them selves simply because they are disgusting, whining about misogyny, try living in india, then come back and talk about misogyny, Rape culture, rape culture you morons is being trapped on a bus and being gang raped then having your intestines dragged out of your body with a tyre iron through your vagina, or being gang raped and then hanged from a tree with your sister and left to die, you make me sick, claiming to be so oppresed, have you ever sat on a bus and been shot in the head just for demanding education, grow up you self centric agenda driven hypocryts, men are getting sick of constantly being made to feel as though we have something to be grateful for, you are no more or less special than men, your vagina is not the holy grail, it is a reproductive organ. and before anyone says it, this is directed at those women who agree with him being humiliated for wearing a shirt, cause at the end of the day its a shirt, funny how we dont see magazines being attacked like this, you know those magazines that contain half naked women, nor do we see mass protests outside lapdaning clubs, or protests about victoria secret, oh wait, that would be far too much like hard work wouldnt it, after all its so much easier and more convemient to sit behind a computer and attack someone who achieved more than pretty much all you hate filled venomous creatures of opportunity will ever achieve in yoiur life, he did something that has the potential to advance the human race, you lot did something that if anything will put it backwards, what price your faux equality? feminist used to mean something other than opportunistiuc parasite, now thas all it means.

I anticipated a comment on the grammar and writing, as opposed to a response to the content of his rant.
But seriously, try to format or else people will ignore you because they will have the easy route of commenting on the quality of your writing, rather than what you are saying.

Yeah, not sure where to start a reply since the comment is essentially unintelligible. But I also don’t think there is much to say to someone who can’t see the distinction between commenting on how a woman dresses (not feminine enough, too revealing, etc) and commenting on a man (or woman) wearing an offensive and inappropriate shirt. The insane comment about why there aren’t more women in science further proves that the commenter is ranting and has probably never read a scientific paper about workplace sexism, dress codes, or intimidation. This is a science blog, show me evidence and references to back up your claims.

So instead of refuting the content you attack his grammar? He came in with an emotion fueled rant which should have been easy to take apart but the return volley was a grammar check?

You realize that you validated his claims of taking the easy path over working towards a rebuttal.

Now I know that this comment will have presented itself as a convient substitiute target. I will outline what I see are the ways you’ll strike back.

1. You came late to the party dude. Way to bring up an old thread.
2. Get laid much surfing from your parents basement much troll?
3. You probably took the tl;dr route.
4. You have no uterus, hence you have no standing here.

What an abnormally stupid response. I am a strong supporter of Feminism. But this is beyond stupid. It is his shirt, he can choose what to wear, just like you can choose what you want to wear.
You are merely driving people away from Feminism and women rights through this fundamentalist and fanatically idiotic version of stupidity that you seem to cover under the world ‘Feminism’.
You would be doing a massive favour to the movement by shutting up. If you think you need to shout out pointlessly, maybe you could direct it towards Dear Ms. Kardashian.
This poor man did nothing wrong, and I’m truly sad that stupid good-for-nothing people like you who have achieved nothing in life other than an advanced degree in Whining, can bow a genuinely nice, smart and sincere human being into apologizing for his right of expression.

And your page has 100x views because this really isn’t news on the major news channels, and people are curious. You might want to wonder why the number of comments are so few despite all your views.

Is the word feminism in the post? I think we should all agree that comparing Kardashian and a world-renowned scientist is a huge stretch. I hope to all things that we hold our scientists to a higher level than the Kardashians.

I am a woman, and not only I am not offended by this guy’s shirt, I actually never noticed it. I guess I was too busy thinking that we landed stuff on a comet. More importantly: I would have cried bloody murder if anyone had said anything about what a woman in that room looked like or wore. I am equally appalled that anyone thinks appropriate to say anything about what any man in that room looks like or is wearing.

I agree that commenting on the way someone looks is wrong. Or saying that his shirt was too revealing, or too feminine, or not masculine… also wrong. But… if a woman wore a shirt with overtly racist images on it, you better believe I would write a post about that.

I am at a loss as to why you change -ism in your reply. I of course can’t know what you wold have done in the event that a female scientist had worn a shirt covered in scantily clad males, but I somehow do not think that the poo-storm would have been quite this big. I find it more likely that there would have been some thumbs up for her “forwardness”, her “modern, free attitude” or something similar. (sorry for the grammar errors if any: I’m not a native speaker)

I think in science and STEM fields it is very hard to compare a man wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad women, to a woman wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad men. There is a long history of women being repressed in these fields. This is why I gave an example of something a woman could wear that would elicit a similar response. However, if a woman wore a shirt with images of these men on it, I would also post about how inappropriate it was. http://www.buzzfeed.com/javiermoreno/these-male-superheores-objectified-like-their-female-counter

As a man in science (Taylor’s peer if you will), I feel quite entitled to consider his attire unprofessional. Furthermore, considering that parts of this mission were funded with taxpayer dollars, citizens of contributing countries certainly are entitled to comment on his attire. Lastly, this is a personal blog, so I am entitled to say what I want, assuming I am willing to deal with repercussions… which I am.

Do we really need to keep being this sensitive? Jesus Christ, if they were interviewing a woman wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad men would there be such an uproar? Please ladies, instead of worrying about what’s on this guy’s shirt, try worrying about why there aren’t more women in the space program in the first place. That’s an actual issue that is actually sexist.

I completely agree that the real problem is that there aren’t more women in STEM. But, having men in charge that send these types of messages through fashion and many other ways is exactly why there are not more women in STEM.

It warms my heart and gives me hope to see that the majority of comments here recognize how shallow and small-minded it is to attack this man and belittle his achievements just because of his wardrobe choices.

Hey crestwind24, consider that you yourself have criticized Matt’s shirt speaking from a position of a “man in science” (your words), your post rings rather hollow.
You yourself said “I think in science and STEM fields it is very hard to compare a man wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad women, to a woman wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad men.” just a few posts above. Its also completely erroneous, since it isn’t the scientists doing the complaining, its the people outside of science – so yes the example is entirely comparable, nice straw man there.

Not sure I get your point Aaron. First, as a “man in science” I am pretty sure I am a scientist complaining (many other prominent scientists have also lead the internet in ‘complaining’ about Taylor’s shirt). If you read the comment you quoted, you would know that it was a response to that person’s comment in particular. As I mentioned in that comment, the reason it is “hard to compare a man wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad women, to a woman wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad men.” is because of the long history of discrimination towards women in STEM fields. Men do not have the same history. But the comment also emphasizes that despite these two situations not really being comparable, I would feel the same way if a women wore a shirt with scantily clad men (check out the link in that comment). In that comment, I had provided an example of another situation of an offensive and inappropriate shirt that was not related to sex/gender. Not sure where you think the straw man is in those two separate comments, but feel free to explain.

Absolutely ridiculous. While everyone is entitled to their opinion on how “proper” it was to wear a shirt “like that” on an occasion “like that” this is truly disproportionate. I do admit that when I watched the interview live I raised an eyebrow myself upon noticing the shirt and thought it was a bit tacky. But then I thought that it probably was an inside joke or a lucky shirt or something, after all hawaijian shirts are a thing among scientists I understand.

But that is all you are entitled to, male or female. To raise an eyebrow subjectively on a shirt you might find tacky. Nothing illegal there, just a tacky hawaijian shirt depicting cartoonish (adult) female forms, which could be with some sense of hipster-ly humor across genders, be depicted as “ironic”. Like a shirt depicting cartoonish (adult) male forms could be.

Crying out loud, the guy was a essential member of the team that landed a probe on a comet blazing through space gazillion km/h bazilion km away to gather us, the humanity, males & females crucial information to further our understanding of the universe. If that isn’t a special occasion to wear a (legal) hawaijian shirt, then I don’t know what is. For all I care, he could have been nude and I would have loved the guy still (..in a completely platonic way, of course). Hell, I loved everybody in ESA and on planet Earth that moment.

I try to be as good a man I can be. I have raised a little girl to teen years, love and take care of her, my sister, mother and grandmother the best I can. I hate and try to intervene when men (or anybody) subjugate or inhibit women (or anybody) and act not to do so myself. It feels unfair to me that female professionals might not get the same salary for the same job, as their male counterparts. And I do understand that there are more subtle forms of inhibition or oppression such as some cultural habits and symbols in western (and other) societies that support male dominance and need to be re-evaluated. I generally don’t support the idea of gender quotas because it puts other, more essential qualifications for the job at secondary position, but I do recognize that they might temporarily be needed in order to “kick-start” a change in strict gender divides among different jobs.

However, because of these kinds of nonsense (this whole stupid thing – the shirtgate or what they are calling it) I still tend to be highly skeptical and steer away of anything that labels itself exclusively feminist, and would not even be proud to call myself one. I should be the perfect ally for the feminist cause, yet I find myself constantly running away from it. Sisters (or brothers), you are shooting yourselves in the leg.

Anyways I’d rather identify as a humanist, as we all should. Then we wouldn’t need any feminists or fedoras. I know, it’s corny. But it’s right and every adult human knows it deep inside.

To all people who bashed the poor fellow FOR HIS SHIRT who landed a friggin lander on a effing comet FOR US ALL HERE ON EARTH, hang your head in shame. Or even better, don’t hang your heads but grow as persons and go apologize through social media. To the guy directly or via ESA. You still can do it, and it still matters.

Show some humanity to the guy who made such a progress for the humanity.

Check out the many CauseScience posts about the Rosetta Mission as a whole, and how amazing it is. We have focused a lot on the achievements for humanity! Nowhere in the post does the word feminism pop up. And while the shirt is not illegal, I would guess it violates most corporate dress codes.

Well, your article is tagged under “feminism”. And even if it wouldn’t be, come on. I don’t think you need to mention the style of an article by word by word in order to categorize it. That way anything wouldn’t be hate speech unless you mentioned “hate speech” by word. I don’t even know your gender, not that it would matter, but I guess we can both agree that the piece you wrote was strongly feministic.

But.

I agree with you. In that the shirt is not illegal as we established, and in addition I would also categorize it under “guess it violates most corporate dress codes”. I myself would not choose to wear anything that closely resembles it to say, anyplace, last of all to a public presentation of a historical landing of a space probe on a comet that will be viewed by millions of people worldwide, and by your article I assume you wouldn’t either. But hey, that’s me, that’s you. And he is he.

That’s really all there is. Nothing more, nothing less. At most, a tacky shirt choice that HE MADE and HAD THE RIGHT TO DO that also happens to be a breach of “most corporate dress codes”, whatever that means. If he gets reprimanded by his employer, that’s his choice and his consequences.

You wrote that “the ESA also made science history today for having poor and sexist garment choices be a part of their press interaction.” So in essential you claim it would “historical” for somebody to wear something that you “guess” violates “most corporate dress codes”. Historical, don’t you think that’s a bit or more exaggerated? Corporate dress codes are primarily meant to present a conservative image of the business/corporate entity in order to build trust and to help the client to part with more of their money for the entity’s benefit. ESA receives most of it’s funding from its member states, so I would assume they don’t have to fit the tight conservative image of a man or a woman, which I believe is not the ideal for feminist movement itself. Primarily, they’re scientists as they should be and actually, isn’t the hawaijian shirt kinda of a dresscode among scientists and tech people, at least it was in Silicon Valley?

What I wrote was not that the guy made a good clothing choice or that he should not hear anything about it, ever. What I meant was that this whole “shirt-gate” thing is hugely disproportionate and blown out of scale, politicized for use as a club in war between sects, which in this context happen to be women vs. men, or at least feminists vs. hmm.. distastefully clothed men? (..I’m kinda lost here.) If it would have been a picture of a Muslim scientist wearing, well, anything or nothing, it would have been used as a weapon by Western right-wing populists vs. conservative Islamists. Everybody’s in their trenches, it’s either black or white with no shades of grey to be seen. In the end everybody loses this way, men and women, and the most, children who see the world as a battleground between mom and dad, sister and brother etc., as if the world isn’t that enough already in other contexts. That’s why I’m against these one-side-sees-it-all movements playing the zero-sum shame games be it current day media priviledged ultra feminism OR chauvinistic men’s rights fanatism.

I just hate these gender wars (or any wars) in general and in concept, it makes me sick to read these cowardly ad hominum type reactions that the SG-thing is an example of. To be straight with you it’s mostly not your article, which was not at all from the worst end comparing to all the below-base lynchmob mentality attacks on such great platforms such as twitter or facebook, that went straight for the kill, causing the poor guy to panic and forcing him to release basicly a tearful submission on his bad choice of clothing. Exactly as in various cases of misogynist men attacking women and girls on their choice of clothing in pictures or videos online (whether there was a dresscode or not required), which are of course very real and spiteful and need not to be tolerated at any level, either. The reason I wrote my comment in here was that I felt your forum is one of the ”better” places of the internet being a science oriented forum, which was also why I was schocked to see the ripples of the SG here too. I know and appreciate that CauseScience too has done a great work publishing about the magnificient Rosetta mission and that this is but one sideline, but we were discussing about it, not the mission in general. As I said you article was from the milder end, but you have to admit that you rode the same horse, being that somehow we should should have the right to judge a person and publicly shame them for their (albeit tacky) decision to wear a shirt depicting cartoonish figures of the other sex.

I apologise for my long ”rants” as someone (=probably 99% of internet) might label them and ask your patience to read them through, I’m not at all accustomed to writing on internet comment-sections and I feel that the twitter-isque 120 letters or so will never be enough to explain anything in a comprehensive matter to anybody. Also, I will be waiting for your answer if you have the time for it and answer to it, as you respectfully answered to mine, but I’m afraid I will not be hanging around here for too long, so I wrote longer posts in order to help make my points clear.

TLDR;
He has the right to choose to wear a tacky shirt and be possible suffer the consequences from his employer, we do not have the right to bash him into submission by a global lynchmob. Also, gender wars suck, why bother, so lets be humans to each other and send more wonderful probes into space, together as a two-or-more gendered race.

Thanks for your long comment, and for paying attention to CauseScience blog ! I think we agree about most of this.

I do want to point out that the reason CauseScience posted about shirtgate was not to get views or cause a global lynchmob. The post was meant to draw attention to the fact that the shirt was a poor choice because of the message it could send to girls and women in, or aspiring to be in, STEM fields. Which is of particular interest to readers of this blog. I don’t think Matt Taylor intended to send any message, but to deny that the shirt might send a message, would be ignorant. Science and STEM fields have a major problem with sexism. Woman scientists at all levels face specific discrimination, intimidation, competition, underrepresentation, lower acceptance rates, lower hiring rates, etc etc. As a male scientist that mentors students, I can speak from experience that female students and trainees have a different experience compared to male students (backed up by scientific papers that show this).

It is sad that in many forums the controversy has overshadowed the actual science (CauseScience posts are 10:1 on science:shirtgate). However, I wouldn’t be surprised if more people became aware of the Rosetta Mission due to the controversy itself.

You are completely right that ‘that’s his choice and his consequences,’ but I disagree on the scale. His consequences extend to his choice to wear the shirt during an international broadcast. While normally his employer might reprimand him, in this case it extended to the global scientific community (and then further). His choice reflects all scientists, many of whom are working hard on programs and training to make science more attractive to girls and women. Scientists are trained to be critical and put things up for debate. Many of the initial commentaries about shirtgate came from scientists with the intention of drawing attention to his poor choice so we can become a better, more cohesive scientific community. The global lynchmob that followed was clearly not the intention of these scientists.

This should also start to answer your comments in relation to ‘corporate’ dress code. The science community are indeed lax with fashion choices, so who better than other prominent scientists to decide when something is appropriate or not.
Hope that helps.

And shall we also bow down to all those nice priest men who molest children, cause they’ve done so much good in the world otherwise? Someone can accomplish great things in life, and still be an asshole, sexist, or worse … life is never black and white like this. He should be called out for his inappropriate dress, regardless of his accomplishments. HE’S the one who should be apologizing.

Oh noes. He’s wearing a shirt with beautiful women all over it. This is …. horrible(?)…. because….um….anyone care to explain to me why this is horrible?

Just because a woman is beautiful does not mean she can’t be smart, and these knee-jerk reactions to every image of an attractive woman being “demeaning” or whatever just tire my ass out (and more importantly, send the message that “feminists” are huge pains in the ass, which is not who are reacting strongly to this shirt, it’s more the “easily gets panties in a twist” bunch that are fueling this “controversy”- and you’re not helping true feminists by making them appear to be knee-jerk dolts who think every image of an attractive woman means that’s ALL you are).

Kindly explain EXACTLY what the problem with this shirt is or please STFU.

I have no problem with the shirt having beautiful women all over it (although beauty is subjective). I completely agree that smarts and beauty don’t have to be connected at all. But… the woman on the shirt are scantily clad and in suggestive poses, which in my opinion is not appropriate for a lot of reasons. I have no agenda to help or hurt feminists, only to voice my opinion that this shirt could easily send the wrong message to girls and women in STEM fields.

I’m guessing none of you have jobs because only a perpetual hobo or trust fund kid would fail to understand that, sexism aside, it’s inappropriate to use a prominent work-related event to showcase your personal fetish. Whether that’s half-clad, patent leather wearing ladies or, I don’t know, an obsession with Dr. Who. This is supposed to be about your work accomplishment, representing your workplace, and scientific endeavor as a whole. Pulling focus so you can showcase your super fun and special personality is tacky and distracting. It’s not relevant here.

And yes, there are always going to be hysterical faction to any group. That doesn’t change the fact that the shirt objectifies women and is therefore (gasp) sexist. Don’t bring sex into work! I don’t care who does it: man, woman, hermaphrodite, or trans — don’t do it. Why in the hell do people need to be told this? It’s standard practice everywhere since the freaking sexual revolution.

Also, women can be sexist. In fact, to say otherwise would be sexist. Just because a woman made this shirt does not mean she speaks for all womankind in her approval of said shirt. The majority of professional women, and a good chunk of professional men, think it’s sexist. Therefore, we are having that conversation. Jeez.

so many people to fight over a “horribly sexist (omg)” shirt with cartoon characters on it, but still not a single feminist to fight for actually opressed women’s rights in islam.
feminism has become so ridicule that all they can do now is bullying easy targets just so we can talk about them because we have no reason to do so otherwise…

but anyway if you really think a shirt with cartoon semi naked girls on it is sexist and genuinely sending the message, not from your beholder’s point of view, but from the wearer’s actual purposed will, that women aren’t welcome in astrophysics, you are probably too stupid to work in astrophysics anyway…

some people say “they should have told him”. but nobody did. none of his colleague, men or women, told him. none of them, men or WOMEN thought it would be, no, none of them thought it IS offensive and sexist.
these people are smart, they landed on a f#$&ing comet. they are from the elite of mankind ? why did the elite of mankind not think this shirt is too sexist to appear on tv ?
because smart people don’t give a f%*# about petty things. that’s simple. the smarter you are, the less f&$% you give.

Evil has always been, is and will always be in the eye of the f*&#ing beholder. and the whole world is sick of people who persist telling us the opposite and who NEVER hesitate to use violence and harm people, destroy people’s lives, (or in that case, people’s moments of glory) to force us to accept the opposite !

that’s why humanity deserves to die whatever it accomplished until now. a second giant step for mankind has been made but the dumb majority is focusing on a shirt one of these dudes worn on camera to the point of making him cry and apologize for he did nothing.

the dude has worn “i worship satan” on his shirt, i wouldn’t give a f*$& because he and his team landed on a f*^$ing comet moving faster than a bullet.

real feminists, our grandmothers and grandfathers who fought for women’s equality in the 20th century must have injured their foreheads due to too violent facepalming…

I have worked out exactly why imvho that shirt is not sexist. I needed time to have an exact theory and time is a luxury at the moment.
That shirt does not appear to have been called racist by anyone. And yet, for what I can see it depicts only caucasian curvy women. Does it suggest to us that only caucasian females are sexy? Of course not. So why is it not racist? We don’t perceive sign of denigration or humiliation of a specific etnic group. Had it depicted caucasian people in chain, we would have.
That shirt does not seem to have been considered anti-disabled people (sorry, can’t put my finger on the right term there!). Yet I can’t see a single disabled woman, but no one thinks that it suggests only able bodied ladies are sexy. It’s not anti-disabled people because there is no sign of humiliation or denigration of that particular social group. A single ugly disabled person in the middle of that shirt would have made it a despicabie shirt.
So why do we perceive it as sexist? Because we have a problem with sexy images, and consider them, in and of themselves, demeaning. They are not.
I am an artist so I find it easy to explain with images taken from my field. This:
Is at least as muscly and exposed and sexualized as those depicted in your earlier answer. But it is not an inappropriate image.
This: http://www.tesoridiroma.net/foto_roma_gratis/chiese_barocco/chiesa_maria_vittoria/foto/ststeresa19.jpg depicts a freaking sex act to make a point on religion! And yet, we don’t call her objectified.
Had that shirt depicted a woman sprawled over a rocket, like they are sprawled over motorbikes in advertisements, it would have been sexist. A single clothed male scientist surrounded by those women, yep, sexist. Even an obviously rich man + those women might have been sexist. But this shirt lacks an actual element of denigration that is objective enough to turn it in to an..I want to say, impartially offensive shirt – I don’t know if the word makes sense in that position but I hope it conveys my meaning.

I get your argument, but I just disagree. definition of sexism below:(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sexist)
sex·ism n.
1. Discrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women.
2. Attitudes, conditions, or behaviors that promote stereotyping of social roles based on gender.
I would have to think that number 2 applies here, especially given the circumstances. Keep in mind that woman are discriminated against in STEM fields (see links below) and that the control room had a man to woman ratio of around 10:1.

After thinking about this a little more, I understand your point that the shirt itself can be seen as varying degrees of sexist depending on the observer and the context. To me, this shirt in this setting was sexist, but other people might see it different. I would hope most people would agree that the conditions surrounding the shirt could easily be seen as sexist, given the definition. Thanks for your comments!